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Southern African Frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus africana)

The Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) is a rare deep-sea favorite, known for its alien appearance. With a long snake-like body, rows of jagged teeth and 6 frilly gill openings, its strange looks quickly made the Frilled Shark a celebrity. But did you know there is a second, much rarer species of Frilled Shark? That’s right! The Southern African Frilled Shark is an extremely rare species known only from South African waters and can be very hard to tell apart from the other species of Frilled shark. The Southern African Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus africana) has a longer head, slightly shorter body, and was only described 6 years ago. That’s 125 years after the first Frilled Shark species was discovered!